Spatial and temporal evolution of water quality in reservoirs

• Published in: Physics and chemistry of the earth Vol. 23; no. 4; pp. 475 - 478
• Main Authors: Copertino, V.A., Molino, B., Telesca, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 1998
• ISSN: 0079-1946; 1879-3568
• DOI: 10.1016/S0079-1946(98)00057-3

In recent years the study of water quality in lakes and reservoir has been subject to several research programmes for both ecosystem evolution and water management. Analysis of hydraulic-environmental characteristics in terms of temporal trend has shown the hydraulics and physical-chemical structure of water but in terms of spatial distribution it is necessary to characterize the difference between point and non-point processes. A mobile monitoring system able to measure several vertical profiles along the reservoir surface and a geostatistical model are employed in order to evaluate the spatial (3-D) distribution of environmental indicators (temperature, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, pH and redox potential). This approach has been demonstrated on the Camastra reservoir (Southern Italy). Through these computations the evolution of water thermal structure and hypolimnetic anoxic phenomena are described. The latter has been recognized to be dependent on the local hydraulic characteristics and not by diffuse anoxic processes.